Double Coverage

Archives for May 2017

Mississippi State is a shoo-in for an NCAA regional bid, but it’s trying to enhance its résumé at the SEC Tournament. Ole Miss, meanwhile, is at home sitting on the proverbial NCAA bubble.

On this episode, Logan discusses MSU’s strong start in Hoover (2:22), where the Bulldogs won their first two games. On Thursday, they rallied in the ninth inning to beat Arkansas, earning a Friday matchup against top-seeded Florida.

Logan looks at where the projections have MSU going for the NCAA Regional (16:37). Might a trip to Hattiesburg be in store?

Ole Miss made a quick exit on Tuesday, losing to Auburn (8:11), and now must wait until Monday to see if it makes the NCAA field. The Rebels are young, and it’s shown this year on offense, and now the pitching has started to falter the last few games.

Also, Parrish says the Ole Miss softball team isn’t scared of the big stage as it takes on UCLA in an NCAA Super Regional this week (19:46).

No matter where he goes, Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze can’t escape the cloud of an ongoing NCAA investigation. During a golf pro-am in Birmingham this week, he cut short an interview with local media when a television reporter asked about the investigation.

On this episode, Parrish and Logan discuss the incident and how both parties handled it (2:30).

As for sports still in season, Parrish takes a look at the Ole Miss softball squad (10:00), which surprisingly won the SEC Tournament and is now hosting an NCAA regional this weekend. And MSU is back in the postseason after a one-year absence (13:59).

On the baseball diamond, the SEC regular season wraps up this weekend. Ole Miss needs to win two against Auburn to bolster its NCAA tournament résumé (16:47), while MSU hosts LSU, a team it trails by one game for first place in the Western Division standings (19:51).

It’s standard operating procedure for college coaches in Mississippi to have their contracts periodically extended to the four-year maximum allowed by the state. But Ole Miss has chosen to not extend the contract of men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy.

On this episode, Parrish discusses why that might be the case (3:31). It could be athletic director Ross Bjork is making a statement about the need for Kennedy to get the Rebels back into the NCAA tournament. There is good reason to believe that will happen next season, as Kennedy is bringing in his strongest signing class to date.

We also have some MSU hoops talk. Logan notes the strength of this current signing class, headlined by Nick Weatherspoon (8:55). Coach Ben Howland is entering his third season in Starkville, and the third year is when he has historically taken programs to a higher level.

On the baseball field, MSU looks to keep the momentum from its series win at Texas A&M when it hits the road again to meet Georgia (14:48), while Ole Miss deals with struggles heading into a series against A&M (18:47).

Other topics today include Ole Miss and the NCAA investigation (1:11), and Ole Miss softball (13:24).

With spring football in the books, coaches at Ole Miss and Mississippi State will have concerns they will want to quickly address. On this episode, the guys look at three areas they believe coaches will hone in on between now and fall camp.

For Ole Miss, Parrish believes the main issues are linebacker play, getting key injured players back to form, and the offensive line (7:11). For MSU, Logan thinks the focus will be on the offensive line – in particular who will start at center – kicker, and the development of young receivers (16:04).

Sticking with football, the Bulldogs picked up a couple of big 2018 commitments this week: Tupelo linebacker Jett Johnson (1:51) and West Point athlete Marcus Murphy (4:23).

And on the baseball diamond, both teams are on the road this weekend. Ole Miss, which visits Florida, is looking to get to the magic number of 15 SEC wins (25:07), while State is dealing with even more injuries heading into its series with Texas A&M (28:11).